Hunger Games Prequel Reveals President Snow is Now the Hero

The Hunger Games creator Suzanne Collins is continuing the series with a prequel story to the saga of Katniss Everdeen and her revolution to free her homeland of Panem from fascist tyranny. Back in fall 2019 we learned that The Hunger Games prequel will be titled The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes; well, now EW is dropping some big reveals for the project, including one major, game-changing character and story premise detail: The Hunger Games prequel will follow Coriolanus Snow as its protagonist! That's right: Katinss Everdeen's archnemesis President Snow will now be the hero of his own Hunger Games prequel story!

Consider our minds officially blown, and our interests officially hooked!

As EW exclusively reveals, the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes place 64 years before The Hunger Games, and the version of Coriolanus Snow we meet is "a teenager born to privilege but searching for something more, a far cry from the man we know he will become. Here, he's friendly. He's charming. And, for now anyway, he's a hero."

Along with that big character reveal, EW actually got a first excerpt from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, along with this exclusive thirst-trap image of a young Coriolanus Snow, courtesy of Suzanne Collins:

"The grand staircase up to the Academy could hold the entire student body, so it easily accommodated the stream of officials, professors, and students headed for the reaping day festivities. Coriolanus climbed it slowly, attempting a casual dignity in case he caught anyone's eye. People knew him—or at least they had known his parents and grandparents—and there was a certain standard expected of a Snow. This year, beginning this very day, he was hoping to achieve personal recognition as well. Mentoring in the Hunger Games was his final project before graduating from the Academy in midsummer. If he gave an impressive performance as a mentor, with his outstanding academic record, Coriolanus should be awarded a monetary prize substantial enough to cover his tuition at the University.

There would be twenty-four tributes, one boy and one girl from each of the twelve defeated districts, drawn by lottery to be thrown into an arena to fight to the death in the Hunger Games. It was all laid out in the Treaty of Treason that had ended the Dark Days of the districts' rebellion, one of the many punishments borne by the rebels. As in the past, the tributes would be dumped into the Capitol Arena, a now-dilapidated amphitheater that had been used for sports and entertainment events before the war, along with some weapons to murder one another. Viewing was encouraged in the Capitol, but a lot of people avoided it. How to make it more engaging was the challenge..."

Check out the FULL excerpt from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and FULL Coriolanus Snow image over at EW!

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will hit store shelves on May 19th.